When it comes to Twitter, not many people know how to use it effectively for business. In fact, using Twitter for business is an enigma to most. Today we seek to uncover the mysteries of Twitter and reveal some helpful ways that this platform can indeed be useful for business.
Twitter is always buzzing with conversation and the latest trends so it makes sense that the data collected via Twitter would be useful for gathering clues about what interests people and gets them talking. You may be already using Twitter in an effort to find out what people enjoy so that you can create awareness and hype around your business, but do you know if you are doing it correctly?
We break down the many benefits of using Twitter for business, explain why Twitter is important and look at how you can make the most of this mysterious social platform.
1. Take a look at customer insights
Did you know that every second, on average, around 6,000 tweets are tweeted on Twitter! That’s a lot of tweets! And the great news is that it provides a lot of data that you can use to extrapolate useful information from.
Using Twitter to research the trends and topics that people enjoy the most will provide you with a starting point and some idea of how to connect with Twitter users. It can also provide you with valuable insights on how to create meaningful and engaging content for your brand.
When you think about it, Twitter is essentially a consumer insights engine that reveals peoples needs, mindsets and moods. These insights are helpful to businesses, allowing them to do many things from launching a new product or service to making improvements to existing products and services. Twitter can also be used to engage with consumers in an authentic way which helps to humanise your brand.
The Twitter explore page is helpful for finding current and up to date trending topics and hashtags which are specific to your region and interests. You can use this page to discover what is important to your audience and create content that speaks to their interests while grabbing their attention.
2. Create brand identity and awareness
How you word and style your tweets as well as engage with your audience says a lot about your brand. So keep this in mind when thinking about how you want people to perceive your business.
When refining your brand identity, a great question to start with is: what words would you like people to use when describing your brand? Pretend that you are an outsider looking in and ask yourself what message does your current brand identity and style of engagement send?
A top benefit of Twitter for business is that it lets you instantly share information and start conversations easily with your audience. Bonus, if your audience feels that your content and conversation is interesting and valuable enough, they will share it with their followers and so on which creates free brand awareness!
Another way that you can improve your brand’s chances of being seen on Twitter by those who don’t follow your profile is to engage with your audience’s replies and mentions.
The content and conversations that you create on Twitter should all be engineered to attract your ideal audience, so think about how you would attract an audience whose likes and dislikes align with your brand. If you need some guidance on how to do this check out Twitter’s recently launched Organic Tweets starter kit.
3. Respond to customer queries and pay attention to what they say
Twitter plays a vital role in customer care and support because it can often provide valuable insights into what customers are experiencing. It is designed in such a way that makes it easy for customers to reach out and provide feedback or ask for assistance. Brands can and should look at this data to collect helpful feedback that can be used to improve certain products and services as well as deliver improved support to customers who are looking for answers.
4. Encourage brand community
Firstly, brand community is not the same as brand awareness. It differs in that the people who are part of your brand community are emotionally invested. You could say that they are your biggest, most loyal fans! These fans are usually people who follow all of your brand’s social media accounts, regularly share your products, services and content with others and really enjoy engaging in everything that your brand does. Brand communities are also advocates for your brand and will often provide word of mouth referrals to others.
Twitter is useful for building a brand community because brands can use the platform to either start or join relevant and engaging conversations for the purpose of building a loyal brand following. Conversations around common interests or causes often catch people’s attention and are useful topics for cultivating a brand community.
